Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology (AKST) has the capacity to improve livelihoods, although effects have varied by region and social group. The ability to access and benefit from AKST is uneven, with industrialized countries gaining more than developing countries. Monsanto is by far the largest investor in agricultural research in South America.

Investments in agricultural research and development (R&D) are still growing, but the growth rate declined during the 1990s. In addition, investment trends among countries have increasingly diverged. Investment in publicly funded agricultural R&D in many industrialized countries has stalled or declined and has become a small proportion of total spending on science and technology (S&T).

Today we find a world of asymmetric development, unsustainable natural resource use, and continued rural and urban poverty. There is general agreement about the current global environmental and development crisis. It is also known that the consequences of these global changes have the most devastating impacts on the poorest, who historically have had limited entitlements and opportunities for growth.

Population Density of Children Age 0-5 Underweight (per square kilometer). Children are defined as underweight if their weight-for-age z-scores are more than two standard deviations (2 SD) below the median of the NCHS/CDC/WHO International Reference Population.

Children are defined as underweight if their weight-for-age z-scores are more than two standard deviations (2 SD) below the median of the NCHS/CDC/WHO International Reference Population. There are serious problems of child malnutrition in Latin America but not as persistent as in Asia.

The general model has been to continuously innovate, reduce farm gate prices and externalize costs. This model drove the phenomenal achievements of AKST in industrial countries after WWII and the spread of the Green Revolution beginning in the 1960s. But, given the new challenges we confront today, there is increasing recognition within formal S&T organizations that the current AKST model requires revision.

Children are defined as underweight if their weight-for-age z-scores are more than two standard deviations (2 SD) below the median of the NCHS/CDC/WHO International Reference Population. There is a high incidence of of malnutrition in Asia.

In many parts of the world natural resources have been treated as though unlimited, and totally resilient to human exploitation. This perception has exacerbated the conflicting agricultural demands on natural capital, as have other exploitative commercial enterprises. Both have affected local cultures and had undesirable long-term impacts on the sustainability of resources. The consequences include: land degradation (about 2,000 million ha of lan...

Only 15% of the world’s agricultural public sector extension agents are women [Global 3]. Women's access to extension is limited by lack of access to membership in rural organizations which often channel or provide training opportunities, and by gender blind agricultural policies that give inadequate attention to women farmer's needs in terms of crops and technology.

Production gains are attributed to improved crop varieties and livestock, soil management, improved access to resources (nutrients and water), infrastructure developments, policy initiatives, microfinance, education, better communication and advances in market and trade systems. This has also increased the demand and use of irrigation, phosphorus and nitrogen.

There are major distributional impacts among countries and within countries that in many cases have not been favorable for small-scale farmers and rural livelihoods. The poorest developing countries are net losers under most trade liberalization scenarios.

In SSA women make up two-thirds of those infected with HIV/AIDS. This adds additional burdens for women as producers of food and as family caretakers. Labor loss due to illness, need to care for family members and paid employment required to cover medical costs may cause families to decrease their farming activities.

Overall, agriculture (cropping and livestock) contributes 13.5 % of global greenhouse gas emissions mostly through emissions of methane and nitrous oxide (about 47% and 58% of total anthropogenic emissions of CH4 and N2O, respectively). The largest producer is power generation at 25.9% followed by industry with 19.4%.

Food security is a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Food sovereignty is defined as the right of peoples and sovereign states to democratically determine their own agricultural and food policies.

Modern biotechnology is a term adopted by international convention to refer to biotechnological techniques for the manipulation of genetic material and the fusion of cells beyond normal breeding barriers. The most obvious example is genetic engineering to create genetically modified/engineered organisms (GMOs/GEOs) through “transgenic technology” involving the insertion or deletion of genes.

Substantial gains in agricultural productivity over the past 50 years have reduced rates of hunger and malnutrition, improved the health and livelihoods of many millions of people and stimulated economic growth in numerous countries. World cereal production has more than doubled since 1961 with average yields per hectare increasing around 150% in many high and low income countries, with the exception of most nations in sub-Saharan Africa.

There is a need to develop agricultural policies that both reduce emissions and allow adaptation to climate change that are closer to carbon-neutral, minimize trace gas emissions and reduce natural capital degradation. Important questions include how emissions from agriculture and forestry can be effectively reduced, how to produce food with greater input efficiency, and less GHG emissions, how can agriculture, agroforestry and forestry best adap...

Salinization affects about 10% of the world’s irrigated land, while the loss of biodiversity and its associated agroecological functions (estimated to provide economic benefits of US$ 1,542 billion per year) adversely affect productivity especially in environmentally sensitive lands in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

As the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increases the percentage of agricultural labour as the entire labour of a country. East Africa has the highest levels of agricultural labour as Japan and the U.S.A. have the lowest levels of agricultural labour.

As biomass feedstocks are widely available, bioenergy offers an attractive complement to fossil fuels and thus has potential to alleviate concerns of a geopolitical and energy security nature. However, only a small part of globally available biomass can be exploited in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable way.